It will be interesting to monitor how far the Boao Forum goes to being the key voice of Asia. If anything, I am heartened that this year’s theme is about a green and sustainable development path for the Asian nations. For more, check out the forum’s official website – I like the slogan – “Asia searching of Win-Win”, very Asian indeed.

And here is the official spiel from its web site-

As a non-government, non-profit international organization, Boao Forum For Asia (BFA) is the most prestigious and premier forum for leaders in government, business and academia in Asia and other continents to share visions on the most pressing issues in this dynamic region and the world at large. The Forum is committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries even closer to their development goals.

Initiated in 1998 by Fidel V. Ramos, former President of the Philippines, Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister of Australia, and Morihiro Hosokawa, former Prime Minister of Japan, Boao Forum for Asia was formally inaugurated in February 2001. Countries across the region have responded with strong support and great enthusiasm, and the world has listened attentively to the voice coming from a tiny, quiet and scenic island at the southernmost part of China – Boao, the permanent site of the Annual Conference of the Forum since 2002.

BOAO, Hainan, April 11 (Xinhua) — China will work to make the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) a key voice of Asia and more globally represented, the BFA’s newly-elected secretary-general Zhou Wenzhong said Sunday.

Zhou, a veteran Chinese diplomat, said that for the first time, the BFA’s new board of directors has several members from other continents, including former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

This created conditions for the forum to be more globally represented, Zhou told Xinhua before the BFA wrapped up its annual conference on Sunday in Boao in south China’s island province of Hainan.

The forum represents Asia’s consensus and it belongs to the whole Asia, said Zhou, who will take the post from Long Yongtu, former deputy trade minister of China.

The three-day conference, with the theme of “Green Recovery: Asia’s Realistic Choice for Sustainable Growth,” concluded Sunday. It attracted about 2,000 political and business heavyweights and experts from Asia and around the world.

Established in 2001, the BFA is committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries even closer to their development goals.

BFA secretary-general Long Yongtu seems to think that China and India are not natural enemies – “China and India are not competing so fierce as some people say”. He also seems to believe that the two countries share more than they compete.

BOAO, Hainan, April 11 (Xinhua) — Competitions between China and India do not necessarily mean confrontation between the two neighboring Asian nations, Indian minister of state for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh said here Sunday.

“These two giants must cooperate, as the Chinese leaders say, in a harmonious manner,” Ramesh said at the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) annual conference which concluded Sunday in south China’s island province of Hainan.

Ramesh said both sides have to move forward and compromise.

For example, he said cooperation between India and China in the United Nations climate change conference last December in Copenhagen could become a “trigger for deepening cooperation” between the two nations in all fields.

At a panel discussion, Ramesh was asked whether the competition between the two nations was as fierce as what was described in The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and What It Means for All of Us, a book written by American journalist Rogyn Meredith.

The book perceived the two nations as “natural enemies,” Ramesh said. But “I’ll not read this book for peace.”

Ramesh was the first minister-level Indian official attending the regional forum, according to outgoing BFA secretary-general Long Yongtu.

Established in 2001, the BFA is committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries even closer to their development goals.

“It’s a historical moment for the BFA,” Long said when introducing Ramesh.

“China and India are not competing so fierce as some people say” and the two countries “share more than we compete,” Long said.

However, there are “too few people-to-people contact” between the two most populated and booming economies, Long said.

He said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) or its member states will also have a “more active and bigger role” in the cooperation between China and India.

Currently, China is India’s second largest trade partner and India is China’s 10th biggest trade partner. Statistics show Sino-Indian trade increased by more than 30 percent annually between 2004 and 2008.